Nothing lasts that is not good;
Nothing stands that is not true:--
What a thing misunderstood,
What a thought kept out of view!
O pretences, shams, and cheats,
You may strut your little day,--
But Confusion swiftly meets
And surely drives you all away!

Never yet was Truth assail'd,
But the struggle gave it strength;
'Great is Truth and has prevail'd'
Always comes to pass at length:
Never yet was good attack'd,
But the very foe that smote
Whiten'd up what slander black'd,
And abjured what malice wrote!

What is Good? the pure and kind;
What is Truth? the wise and right;
And, in Matter as in Mind,
Both will live in death's despite:
But the bad, the false, the base,
Barely breathe one feverish hour,
Dying out of every place
Like a rootless nosegay flower.

How then comes it, that so oft
Good men droop, and good things drown?
How, that Lies are throned aloft,
While so many Truths die down?
--How? -- For just a little while,
And by just a herd of fools,
Cheats are praised, and shams beguile,
And sin is stout where Satan rules:

Ay,-- but look a little higher,
Forward post your eager eye,
You that gloriously aspire,
And on God and Right rely;
Evil perishes,-- forsake it,--
Falsehood dies -- renounce its sway,--
But the Good, for treasure take it,--
And secure the True to-day!